One of the goals of every legacy giving program is to encourage members to include the church in their estate plans. But there’s another question we don’t ask nearly often enough:
Once someone includes the church in their will, how does the church stay there?
Research by legacy giving expert Russell James offers an important answer: Don’t stop communicating, especially as people age and perhaps stop coming to church or giving on a regular basis.
Professor James found that organizations that remained in regular contact with legacy donors later in life were much more likely to receive the charitable gifts those donors intended to leave.
That finding has profound implications for churches that want to be successful at legacy giving.
Remember, a bequest is a revocable gift. Being included in someone’s will does not guarantee that your church will ultimately receive that gift. Estate plans are often reviewed and revised during the final years of life. If your church quietly disappears from a donor’s life during that same period, you may disappear from the estate plan as well.
There’s another scenario to consider.
Many estate plans are written while both spouses are living. Perhaps one spouse was more actively involved in the church than the other. If that spouse dies first, the surviving spouse may later revise the estate plan.
If the church has lost touch with the surviving spouse, or stopped communicating altogether, the charitable gift may no longer feel as meaningful as it once did. Continuing the relationship can make all the difference.
Unfortunately, many churches have communication systems that unintentionally create this problem.
Most communications are driven by recent giving or recent attendance. As members age, they may stop making annual gifts, no longer be able to attend worship regularly because of health or mobility issues, or move out of state to be closer to family.
And what does the church too often do?
Communication simply stops.
The person’s commitment to the church may be as strong as ever, but they gradually receive fewer communications and have fewer opportunities to feel connected to the congregation. Ironically, this often happens at precisely the time when they are making important decisions about the future distribution of their estates.
One of the strongest arguments for having an active Legacy Society is that it gives the church a natural reason to continue the relationship. A Legacy Society should be much more than a list of names or an annual luncheon. It creates regular opportunities to stay connected through stories of ministry, expressions of gratitude, invitations, and reminders that these faithful members continue to shape the church’s future.
It is also one of the best ways to maintain meaningful relationships with members who have moved away. Whether they now live in Florida, Arizona, or in an assisted living community across town, they remain part of your church’s story, and your church should remain part of theirs.
Most churches are unlikely to return to the days of printing and mailing a monthly newsletter to every household, and that’s understandable. Email and social media have become the primary ways congregations communicate.
Which raises an important stewardship question:
How do we remain present in the lives of our oldest members?
For many older adults, especially those who are homebound or no longer able to participate regularly in church life, a piece of mail may be the most tangible reminder that their church still remembers them.
That doesn’t mean bringing back an expensive monthly newsletter. It may be as simple as mailing an annual ministry update, a stewardship newsletter, a Legacy Society letter, or ensuring that your annual pledge invitation is sent through the mail, even to members who have moved away.
One simple exercise is to review your mailing lists. Are members who have moved away, entered assisted living, or are no longer able to attend worship still receiving at least one or two meaningful communications from the church each year? If not, this may be one of the easiest ways to strengthen your legacy giving program.
Every mailing says something far more important than “Please give.” It says,
“You still belong. You are still part of this church’s ministry. We haven’t forgotten you.”
Stewardship has always been about relationships, not transactions.
The goal isn’t simply to communicate information. It’s to sustain the relationship.
If we want our churches to remain in our members’ hearts, and ultimately in their estate plans, we need to remain present in their lives.
Sometimes that presence arrives in an envelope.
If you want to stay in the will, make sure you stay in the mail.
